Along with the smattering of typical bug fixes, Maps v9.3 brings two main new features. First, is the ability to permanently ignore location settings warnings, second is that ability to share directions.

Starting with the location settings warning. If you’ve ever fired up Maps while not connected to WiFi, or with your GPS disabled, you’ve seen the warning. It simply lets you know that Maps isn’t going to work so well for you until you change your location settings, and includes options to ignore once or head into the settings. If you see this often, and it drives you nuts, simply tap the new “Don’t ask me again…” check box and continue on your merry way.

About those sharing options, this is going to be huge for some people, and wasted on others. The tool is pretty straightforward, a new Share directions option is in the three-dots menu of the directions dialog. Sharing directions gives your next steps in two forms, a text only guide is presented, allowing you to send the directions to those that cannot access Maps at that moment. From there, a link is provided that will give fellow Maps for Android users the directions in their Maps.

In addition to the front end changes we are seeing, there are two new permissions required for the app. Access to Bluetooth settings and the ability to Run at startup.

If you are not seeing the update just yet, the folks over at Android Police have captured the APK for download. Otherwise, we understand that Google is pushing out the Maps update to all of your devices over the next couple days.

What do you say, is the ability to share directions an important feature for your Google Maps usage?

What is Alongways?

Alongways is a sort of navigation app that acts as a tag-along to your regular navigation app. Most navigation apps focus on the point A to point B drive while Alongways focuses on all the places between. It’s currently $0.99 in the Google Play Store.

Here’s how it works. You input the starting point and the ending point. Alongways then finds all the places you can stop between those two destinations. It also helps you find reviews, contact information, and other information about the establishments so you can make plans to stop there. This can be very helpful for longer road trips where stopping will not only be necessary but essential although it loses a lot of its functionality if you end up flying somewhere instead.

Some of the use cases the developer mentions includes finding pet friendly hotels between your starting and ending point so you can find a place that will let you have your pet in the room. You can also look for restaurants, places to park things like RVs, gas stations, rest stops, and even some tourist attractions. Other functionality includes bookmarking your favorite places if you take frequent road trips to the same place and adding way-points to your navigation so you get directions to each establishment.

A good addition to your adventure.

PROS

Helps you find stops on your trip for fun, rest, food, or gas based on criteria you need.

Simple design makes it easy to use.

Bookmarking favorite spots and way-points are a nice touch.

Works great for holiday road trips, travelers, and truckers.

Also helps find contact info, directions, and reviews about places where you plan to stop.

CONS

A demo version would have been nice.

Probably won't replace Google Maps or HERE Maps as a main source of navigation.

8.0

Overall, this is a nifty little app. It likely won’t displace Google Maps or HERE Maps in terms of pure functionality but it’s a nice addition to your navigation set up. Especially for people who want to find out-of-the-way places or those who travel with some restrictions like pets.

What is Maps.Me Offline Maps?

Maps.Me Offline Maps is pretty much what the name says it is. It is a navigation app where the biggest feature is the ability to download maps for offline use whenever you want. There is a free trial version in the Google Play Store and a paid version for $4.99.

The app is pretty easy to use. You select your region and download the maps that you need. There is no time limit on how long they stay there so you’ll have them whenever you want. Maps.Me touts 100% offline use so aside from actually downloading the maps, you don’t actually need a web connection to use this and that’ll probably make a lot of people happy.

In the free version, you just have access to the maps and the GPS will show you where you are on them. In the Pro version, you’ll also gain the ability to create routes, offline search, auto-follow mode, and bookmarking. You really can’t go wrong either way but do remember that the free version is a trial and is appropriately bottlenecked.

A must have app for offline map users.

PROS

All maps are 100% offline. You have to download them but once you do, they're accessed solely offline.

Offline map search, routing, and bookmarking are all very nifty features (Pro version only).

Easy to use and understand.

A lot offline map providers have weird policies and licenses and you usually have to buy things and it gets tedious and expensive. This app does none of those things.

CONS

A more traditional trial-buy paradigm might've been better. As it stands, it sits halfway between trial-buy and free/paid and that does confuse some people.

Some small issues have popped up here and there. A little inconvenient but nothing terrible.

8.0

Overall, this is a must have app for people who use offline maps frequently. This is also a great app to use on tablets where you usually only have Internet connections at home. The practical uses are virtually infinite. If you want to check it out, click the button below.

If you’ve ever wondered how much of the world you’ve seen, or are just curious as to how much Google knows about your daily travel routine, then you should check out this location history visualizer, courtesy of Reddit user namanamaboo.

The website application takes your Google location history and uses it to produce a funky looking interactive heatmap, like the one seen above, depending on where you’ve been, and how many time you’ve visited a particular place.

If you fancy trying it out for yourself, head on over to Google Takeout, which contains a copy of all the data Google collects about you, and download your Location History data. Extract the .zip file and then upload the LocationHistory.json file to the Visualizer website. Uploading and processing can take quite a while, some users are reporting several hours, depending on the size of your file and the power of your local machine, as all of the processing is done locally.

Speaking of which, anyone concerned about privacy need not worry. All of the processing and map visualization happens directly on your computer, so your location history is not actually uploaded to the website.

Hopefully, this will end up in a slightly easier to use Android app one day. How far have you travelled?

How the times have changed – following the sale of its mobile unit to Microsoft, Nokia is now free to do whatever it pleases with its other assets, including the powerful Here maps service.

Today Nokia announced that users of Samsung Galaxy devices will soon be able to download the free Here app for Android. The app will become available to other Android devices by the end of the year.

The launch of Here on Galaxy devices is an extension of Nokia’s agreement with Samsung to offer the service on Tizen devices. Nokia is also making the service available to Amazon and Jolla, the Finnish startup developing the Sailfish operating system.

Here is one of the few real competitors to Google Maps, and in some ways, it’s better than Google’s offering. Here’s biggest advantage is that it features true offline maps, meaning that you don’t need to cache certain regions beforehand like you have to do with Maps. You simply download an entire country or region, for free. This makes Here especially useful when travelling in regions where there’s no mobile signal, not to mention more affordable.

Here is a feature rich app that offers most of the bells and whistles you get from Maps. While Google’s service has the advantage of widely available Street View and a more comprehensive global maps coverage, Here is no slouch either – there are maps for 200 countries, with navigation instructions available in 100 countries, and traffic info in 40 countries.

The Here maps app plays nice with Samsung’s newly launched Gear S smartwatch – you can send a location to the Gear S and use the watch for navigation without needing the smartphone.

Here for Galaxy devices will hit the Play Store when Gear S becomes available in stores, which should happen, we guess, in the following weeks.

Now, Google may have to change the name of Google Earth, as it no longer strictly applies, but that shouldn’t stop you from exploring the solar system from the comfort of your own home. I am sorry to say, however, that Google is not yet providing directions to the Moon, you’ll have to find your own way.

As far as finding your own way is concerned, simple head into Google Maps on your PC, make sure you are in Google Earth mode, zoom all the way out until you can see the entire globe and wait just a second for the Moon and Mars to pop up into the Explore drawer at the bottom of your screen. Needless to say, you’ll need to be in the new version of Maps for this to work – you know the one, it was announced at I/O a while back, it’s the one that lets us see the world with daylight represented in real time.

We’ve not heard if Google plans to push this to Google Earth for Android.

For the Moon, Google is crediting NASA, USGS, JAXA and SELENE for the imagery. As for Mars, the list is understandably shorter, with just NASA and USGS on the list. I guess this means that all of Google’s satellites are still pointed at earth.

Head on over to Google Maps on your PC to check it all out. Be honest now, what are you going to look at first, the Moon or Mars? What is your favorite Maps Easter egg?

“Cycling is the new golf,” according to CNN Money. While biking has long been a combination of leisure activity, sport and a practical means to get around town, cycling has now turned into an event for business people to get together. According to The Economist, a growing number of city cycling clubs and corporate-sponsored charity bike rides are bringing together like-minded professionals and enthusiasts alike.

Whether you’re cycling for fun, as a challenge, to go around the city, or to mingle with fellow cyclists, you might be using apps like Google Maps to track your route. But even if Maps offers distance and time estimates, the map representation is usually only in 2D. Fortunately, with the latest Google Maps update, the navigation platform provides more than just directions and duration. The addition of elevation profiles will surely come as a benefit to cyclists, who can now better gauge the difficulty of their ride, particularly with steep inclines.

The feature is yet to be announced, although it already supports 14 countries to date. Austria, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Switzerland, Germany, Denmark, Finland, Great Britain, Netherlands, Norway, New Zealand, Sweden and the US. In essence, Google Maps will offer a graphical representation of hills and other obstacles. Maps will also show you how many feet you will need to climb or descent along your route.

Notably, Maps will not show any of these information or new graphics when the route is flat.It seems, however, that the feature is only available on the web for now and is not implemented on the mobile Maps app yet. But knowing how many of the exciting features on Google Maps come out as mobile-optimized ones, then elevation information is likely to come to Android and other mobile platforms in the near future.

Source: TechCrunch, Shutterstock (image);]]>http://www.androidauthority.com/google-maps-now-features-elevation-profiles-cycling-routes-382756/feed/3Google Maps update with new offline maps option pushed out after public backlashhttp://www.androidauthority.com/offline-maps-in-new-google-maps-update-242232/
http://www.androidauthority.com/offline-maps-in-new-google-maps-update-242232/#commentsThu, 11 Jul 2013 12:56:14 +0000http://www.androidauthority.com/?p=242232
Less than a couple of days after the most recent Google Maps update for Android comes yet another software revision, this time to re-add an old feature that was found to be “cleverly hidden” and only accessible via a mildly interesting easter egg. Users were outraged when it was discovered that the latest version of Google Maps for Android apparently lacked an option to save maps for offline use. And that is exactly what Google aims to take care off with its most recent software push.

In an earlier report, we showed you that performing a search with the words “OK Maps” inside the new Google Maps activated a hidden feature. Now, that will no longer be necessary because the Google Maps engineering team “has been working around the clock” to add a “Make this map area available offline” card for users, making the option to save maps for offline use much easier to access.

It’s nothing like the old offline maps feature, to be sure, but it’s better than nothing. And it shows that Google still listens to its customers — that is, the users — and knows how to implement necessary changes to even its flagship products in a timely manner.

It’s worth pointing out that many Android users won’t even be affected by the latest changes to Google Maps. It still isn’t available in certain regions and many devices aren’t even compatible with it to begin with. In any case, those who do have the option to use the new Google Maps will have at least one less thing to worry about now. But are the latest changes enough? Share your thoughts in the comments.

I’ve been reading a lot about how iOS 6 users are finding their Maps app inadequate for their needs. I have not actually tried iOS6 Maps until last week when I upgraded my old iPhone to 6.0.1. I can say that it absolutely sucks. Even the Google Maps implementation in a cheap-o Gingerbread-powered Samsung Galaxy Y that I own is worlds better in terms of speed, navigation and functionality (like offline caching and “star” syncing, to name a few).

It seems people are starting to notice and do something about it, including Apple executives. Reports have it that Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior VP for software and services, has edged out Richard Williamson, who has — until now — headed Apple’s Maps effort. Sources from within Apple say Cue wants to install a new leadership team for its Maps group, although it’s not immediately known who will head this effort moving forward.

After receiving much criticism for Maps in the iPhone 5 and iOS 6, Apple CEO Tim Cook actually issued an apology in which he said the company was “extremely sorry for the frustration” that Maps has caused iOS users. To date, Google has not yet released its own standalone Maps application for iOS 6, even though the company has already released a YouTube app in lieu of Apple’s replacing the iOS video app with their own. Some cite Apple’s stringent approval process, although Google may likewise be deliberately delaying its own development or submission, if only to let its own Android platform maintain an advantage in this area.

Apart from Williamson, another high-profile executive also left Apple in line with the Maps fiasco a few weeks back. Scott Forstall, who has headed iOS development since the start, also left Apple, in a move that was rumored to be related to the disappointment with Maps. Forstall was reportedly unwilling to be part of the apology letter that Apple issued regarding Maps, hence his untimely departure.

Is Apple finally going to do something about their Maps app? It’s one thing to release a half-baked product and improve along the way. Both startups and big companies do this under what they consider to be “beta” applications. But Apple made the mistake of saying its Maps would be one of the best services, but then proceeded to disappoint.

Not all Apple products have been market successes, and in its current iteration, Maps will probably go down history as another Newton, Lisa or G4 Cube. Heads have rolled in Apple’s aim to fix its mistake. Will Maps emerge as a better product moving forward? Or should Apple just bite the bullet and let Google handle what they do best?

Disappointed by the iPhone’s map functionality? Then here comes some respite.

Nokia has announced its latest strategy pertaining to its trademark Nokia Maps service by re-branding it as “Here” and launching beyond the Windows Phone platform. Here will come to iPhone/iOS as a dedicated maps app, whereas Android will get an open source developers kit, so that developers can use Here data on native maps applications. Here will also feature a web-version supporting Firefox OS in the coming year.

Here combines the local data with the data from the cloud for maximum performance. Nokia’s maps app will provide complete voice-guided walking directions as well as guided transit directions (for the iOS version). Making use of Nokia’s augmented reality profile, thanks to the acquisition of LiveSight, 3D Maps will be the key feature of Here, a feature only seen in the Nokia Lumia series up till now.

Nokia is keeping its fingers crossed to launch Here on iOS before the approval of Google Maps for the platform. As for the Android OS, a date for the developers’ kit has not been confirmed yet. Do you think that Apple will favor Nokia here? Let us know what do you think.